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After writing the first part of this
several months back, I finally present its conclusion (I’m sure you were
waiting on the edge of your seat). Previously, I was talking about how the
church is quite literally structured as the “created order” set right with God.
If you don’t have time read it (here) I did this by initially looking at how the
Church (especially Orthodox and old Catholic) are structured similar to the
tabernacle, architecturally and otherwise, revealing the togetherness of God’s
present Kingdom and Earth. But now I want to fill out this microcosmic picture
by looking at what it means for the church to be liturgical and sacramental in
this context.
To put it succinctly the Church is the
icon of the Kingdom of God and we are participating in the life of God
reconciling humankind to Himself. Thus we further reflect that through
confession, participating in the Eucharist/Communion and finally reconciling
with each other. In doing this we return to bearing God’s image.
As God’s image bearers we occupy a
unique space at the intersection of Heaven and Earth. Anyone who has been
really captivated by Divine Liturgy perceives this as the true reality because
Liturgy itself is an embarking on this journey back towards this destination. The
doxology opens by announcing our destination toward the blessed “Kingdom of the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit now and ever and unto the ages of ages” and the
people affirm it with “Amen”. While we mostly talk about this in “symbolic”
terms, there is a real movement happening with the Church moving from the “old
creation” into the “new creation” within the prayer service. Think of liturgy,
matins and vespers as Divine performance art and then some.
As Alexander Schmemann said, “In
‘this world’ there is no alter and the temple has been destroyed. For the only altar is Christ Himself, His
humanity which He has assumed and deified and made the temple of God, the altar
of His presence. And Christ ascended into heaven. The altar thus is the sign
that in Christ we have been given access to heaven, that the Church is the
passage to heaven, the entrance to the heavenly sanctuary, and that only by
entering, by ascending to heaven does the Church fulfill herself, become what
she is.”[1] This entrance into the new creation, (while it begins in our
Baptism) is the Eucharist, not in “physical symbols of spiritual realities”,
but in coexistence of Spirit and matter. Now her members become re-membered in what
they eat, the Eucharist, and the consubstantiation of God in us is where the
healing process begins and where the vertical reconnects with the horizontal.
Without going through every part of church and service, the eternal and present
presence of God, hidden and manifest, is central to everything happening in the
services.
Thus, Church as the microcosm of
creation is not really a hard concept, but its meaning and transformative
nature is found in the substance of liturgy. Why do I go to the work of saying all this? Because our attentiveness to this participation is also important since we are remembering and living in the story of our journey into Chrstlikeness as-well-as experiencing and becoming God’s grace and forgiveness in the earth as we too
become the bread broken and wine poured out. Becoming a people of this rhythm happens here. Church is the starting point of participating in the concrete
reality of the Kingdom of God with us.
[1] Alexander Schmemann. For the
Life of the World (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir Press) p. 31.
